About The Author

Currently serving at the pleasure of a Swiss multinational.
Previously a Soldier, rugby player, lawyer, bouncer, bartender, substitute teacher, risk manager, and cubicle mushroom. Will work for raclette.

True dat. Now many of them are living the good life as refugees in the U.S of A.

straffinrun
on March 10, 2019 at 7:02 pm

Only because Clint Eastwood has a finger gun.

Heroic Mulatto
on March 10, 2019 at 7:05 pm

Many, yes, but there are still plenty hiding in the jungles of Laos. Look up on Youtube the documentary “Hunted Like Dogs” (I think…maybe it’s Hunted Like Animals). The Lao military are still executing, raping, etc. the descendants of Hmong “collaborators”.

At least we had the good sense to drop charges against Vang Pao.

Spudalicious
on March 10, 2019 at 7:15 pm

We have that same type of history in the Middle East, which is why there are now several hundred troops remaining in Syria.

I have a sibling who owns his own business but is in the tank with the likes of AOC or Bernie…I wonder if he thinks his business will be favored when they take over and decide who gets to operate in their new economy…

Interesting weekend. Did a 2 day course – Intro to Welding 101 at a local place. Been over 22 years since shop class/Power Mechanics. At the time, our school had traditional arc welding (SMAW I think) and acetylene gas welding/cutting. This is the first time I ever touched a MIG system. I guess I saw folks using them in the shipyard, but didn’t put 2 and 2 together. Pretty easy on the whole. Of course, for a short intro course, I basically just worked on fillet welds – flat and vertical. Made a little box to keep. (the masks and other stuff has certainly changed from my old classes too – these digital, automatic goggles rock (switch between grind, cut, weld with a simple button push)! Made to fit ventilators, etc.

Of course, the main thing is that it reinforced my hopes – that this is a possible career choice that I find appealing and interesting – and challenging – and not a complete turn-off.

Now I need to get in contact with some of the shipyard companies back in Puget Sound and start feeling things out with them. I’ve heard some places say they want to do all the training themselves when it comes to ship work – but other places seem like they’d appreciate you already having some certifications. I’m looking out 18+ months which may make some things awkward….but just kinda the way I roll when it comes to planning a voluntary cross-country move, etc. (Worst case scenario if timelines start getting screwy as the end of my lease approaches, I may try for a short term reserve activation/deployment or something).

Yeah…I’m sick of desk work. (Even my last active tour as an instructor I spent most of the day on my feet and supervising) — I’m on a decent contract but I’m dying on my butt right now.

After a year plus in dry dock (total between 2 ships) plus months more pierside maintenance availabilities in just 4 years (2010-2014) – I think I’d like to give it a shot from the civilian worker side (even more fun if I wind up in a reserve billet that lets me inspect the ships post-maintenance ;p).

For my entire adult life there has been an ongoing demand for welders. Supposedly the guys who do underwater welding can command huge bucks as well.

I could never weld with gas but managed to do okay with arc (never got to try the MIG).

BTW, those fancy, dancy goggles were invented for the military to protect pilots from the flash of a nuke (I did the EMP test on them). Before that they issued the pilots an eyepatch. Covering one eye gives you something to look with after the other one is burned out.

Yeah, in our school, it was manual goggles or the mask you had to keep raising and lowering – it’s insanely easy (and hands-free) to have a mask do all the work automatically – even lets you adjust levels, timing, etc. One of the other students was showing me his that has a USB charging port – apparently runs for months on a single charge. Innovation!

I would recommend also learning to weld alloys, Aluminum, Ti, etc. Get experience with all the different equipment – MIG, TIG, etc. If I can recommend some school work get some basic metallurgy courses under your belt so you can speak intelligently about what heat is doing to the materials during your work.

The one I’m looking at much more closely is this one. But I need to talk to Vigor directly first to see what the actual hire rate is like right now. Based on my “other” experiences and qualifications, I’m guessing I’m still a good match, but always good to feel things out first.

Agreed. I have been asked many times over the course of my business if I know someone who can weld aluminum. That and stainless steel are two materials that are easy to source for practicing that would greatly increase your marketability.

It was always a toss up between Tuesday and Sandra Dee. I thought Tuesday was the cuter but Sandra had some charm(s) as well. Blondes about my age. The problem with women my age is that they are my age.

The much fuller, more vibrant, more wonderful, more terrible truth is that to its early libertarian supporters, the Civil War was a great libertarian moment—perhaps the most libertarian moment in American history.

…

Libertarians have always found it easy to hate on Lincoln—by all accountings, he helped transform the country into a consolidated federal nation-state and dramatically increased the size and scope of government.

…

But here’s the other thing we have spent a lot of time showing here—President Lincoln was really a product of early libertarianism more than any other strain of politics or philosophy. That’s not to say HE was a libertarian—again, remember Phil Magness: Lincoln was *always* a Henry Clay tariff Whig, a railroad lawyer who loved internal improvements, and a partisan trueblood.

…

We purge the image of Lincoln the libertarian Great Emancipator so we don’t have to also get wrapped up in praise for Lincoln the Censor or Lincoln the shredder of Magna Carta.

…

Yes, it is hard for us to hold him in equal esteem—to us he’s the excuse we’re always given for “national emergency” powers and all sorts of terrible precedents to erode civil liberties.

Anyway I do find it interesting that in reaction to the perceived neo-Confederate bias of a section of libertarians another section seems at times to go too much into “Lincoln and Grant were Real Top Men!” Which raises many questions about modern libertarianism.

I quickly tire of libertarians trading barbs over the Civil War of all things. Part of the benefit of studying a 150 year old.conflict is that the objective observer doesn’t have to take a side and can understand the motivations of both sides without any need to laud or condemn one side or the other.

I’d say the problem is that the people who get all huffy use the issues you listed as a chance to signal their virtue and villify those that hold a different opinion. It’s the Nick Gillespie of infighting.

Winston
on March 10, 2019 at 7:56 pm

I’ll use the example of Posse Comitatus which was passed after the failure of Reconstruction. Do we want to defend legislation passed by racist segregationists in order to oppose military policing? And if military policing is anti-racist then how can it be so terrible? Was it necessary then but not now? And why is not necessary now? Is there another situation where it might be necessary today or in the future?

AlmightyJB
on March 10, 2019 at 7:58 pm

The only people using slavery and race as “hot button” issues are lying assholes. Slavery and racism are not controversial.

Winston
on March 10, 2019 at 8:23 pm

So Juris imprudent is…?

The Bearded Hobbit
on March 10, 2019 at 7:53 pm

OK, I’ll be the asshole.

What was Lincoln’s Constitutional power in declaring war over the secessionist States?

It seems to me that secession is a power granted to the States under the Ninth Amendment.

No arguments here. My point is that I have no idea why it’s a point to of contention. Slavery was wrong. The South had every right constitutionally to secede. I can believe both simultaneously and it makes me neither a neo-confederate nor an advocate for federal supremacy.

Additionally, in the context of the time (writing of the Constitution), the Articles of Confederation expressly declared the union, perpetual.

Slavery was so important to the political powers of the South, that they were willing to ignore all other considerations to keep it. Whatever legitimate complaints they may have had about other issues, their irredeemable commitment to the peculiar institution more than offset in the negative.

juris imprudent
on March 10, 2019 at 8:48 pm

I would add, in the context of secession, it may have been theoretically possible with the consent of Congress. Just declaring we is all sick of yo asses – not so much.

Jarflax
on March 10, 2019 at 9:02 pm

The clauses you reference deal with rights and conditions of States joining the Union, how do they bar secession?

The Bearded Hobbit
on March 10, 2019 at 9:11 pm

juris,

Thanks for the reply. This is the first time that anyone has made the counter-argument for me.

I’ll have to digest this, as this is a broadside in my States/Federal divide. Pardon me while I curl up into a fetal position.

juris imprudent
on March 10, 2019 at 9:20 pm

Jarflax-

Not quite, which is why I mentioned the specific clauses. (Section 1 of Article IV is about new states). The parts I mentioned relate to what is forbidden to States (including forming alliances, i.e. the Confederacy).

The Bill of Rights didn’t modify ANY aspect of the Constitution – it would be later amendments that would address, specifically, ‘defects’ (11th and 12th) or other things that needed to change for the times (like the 13th, 14th and 15th).

Secession with the consent of Congress may have been feasible, but there is no clear language (outside of that bit) on the States retaining a right to peacefully withdraw. The AoC clearly did NOT allow for that, so it would seem a curious omission if the intent had been to preserve such a right under the Constitution.

juris imprudent
on March 10, 2019 at 8:02 pm

You fail to understand the purpose of progressive history – to roll all past, current and future transgressions against goodness [as progress is known to be] and used as a cudgel in whatever tempest is roiling your teapot.

I read an transcript of Tim Sandefur bemoaning how the far-left dominate the scholarship about Reconstruction. Pretty obvious why: they want to show that big Government is good and those who oppose it are either racists and possibly hypocrites as well.

I bought some natural sausage casings one time, and you had to rinse them in water. After that smell that filled up my apartment? Nope nope nope nope. I’ll still eat natural casing sausages, but I’ll let the butcher deal with that smell, and I’m never eating just straight intestines.